That Time
by zdr
Summary: It's 5 years after the Great War against Ganondorf. Hyrule is in a time of peace... mainly. Course, while nothing on a country wide scale isn't going down, the small time stuff, things Mercenaries handle, will always go on. Chapter 2 up, Ch1. Revised.
1. New Mission

BEHOLD. The beginning of a wonderous(ish), and exciting(ish) side-jorney into the world of Hyrule! (In a way.) Our hero, the main charactor, is bouned to embark on a quest for so many things, I can't be arsed to list them here! I said arse! I'M FUNNY!

But, in all honesty, this is an orignal tale Set in the OOT/MM era of the Zelda games, 5 years after OOT. All non-orignal charactors are of course by Nintendo.

Quistions? Comments? Love letters? Go ahead. Review. Like the wind.

* * *

"_You know, it's like that time…_" 

"You think so?"

"_Almost just like it._"

"You're not talking about that time in the doctor's office, right?"

"_Why would I think of that?_"

"You always seemed to like talking about it."

"_What are you talking about?_"

"What are _you_ talking about?"

"…_You know what? Nevermind…"_

"Well, honestly."

---

You can't help but think about it. Why settle for more than you need, when you get what's in front of you? Why does it seem with every generation, monarchs grow more power-hungry, over anything? What happened to Heros, instead of Mercenaries? Is it me, or is the world moving through an ever downward spriral of dispair, always taking two steps forward, and nineteen back? Maybe I just think too much. I guess It comes with the job, being a mercenary myself. Don't know why I chose that path. Couldn't really care why. Maybe it's the constant Killing. Sure, it's part of the job, but it doesn't mean it stings at times too. I'm lucky enough I don't have the nightmares my co-workers have. Which is odd, seeing as they're grown men, and I'm-

"Hey, Kid. You gonna get over here for the job auction or what?"

"… Just get me something. As long as it ain't big."

"Ain't big? Kid, you know as well as I do the big jobs are the point of this!"

"Not everything has a point worth looking at."

"You're screwed if you think like that kid."

"…Whatever."

"Whatever? …If you wern't a kid, I'd knock you off your feet so fast, You'd-"

"A small job. Just give it."

I didn't even turn to face him. I didn't care. Seems that's how I work nowadays. Do I like that? Not as much. I wouldn't mind sitting around the bartable, shooting the brease with a beer in my hand. There's only 3 problems with that. I don't like most of these guys, These guys don't like me, and I'm underage anyway. I tried beer once. Left a bad taste in my mouth. Not the best.The other's said it was an "aquired taste", that I'd like it when I was older. I bet my Dad would have said that too.

If he were alive that is.

I sighed to myself, then turned and walked over the the bar, where the auctioning off jobs was going on. This guilds preety tightly woven. Course, one disagreement, and that's thrown out the window. I heard an arrow wizz by as I entered the room. One member fewer a second later.

"Kid! Over here." He called to me again, holding up a piece of parchment in one hand.

"What happened this time?" I asked as I joined him at the table, serving myself up a cup of Ginger beer.

"Misson with the Gerudo's. Again."

"Typical. Some of these guys should just give up. A misson working with all women won't do anything for them. Espically ones as prideful as them."

"At least it's not the Zora. You remember what happened last time a misson from them poped up, yeah?"

"Guy didn't even make it back. All for some bare Breast? Spare me."

"Well, what are you going to do, hm?"

"Not my problem. Not like I'm them."

"You're a mercenary too, you know. Same as them."

"…"

"Don't worry over it, Kid. You're better than them."

"Yeah. You get me a mission?"

"Yeah. Preety big too."

"I could have sworn I told you NOT to get be a big one."

"Couldn't help it. Besides we're both doing this one. Bodyguard misson, you know?"

"You need a bodyguard after 15 years with the guild?"

"That's not-"

He raised a fist as a threat over the joke. Poor guy. Like a defensive little child. He stared with a look for a few seconds, then sat back down, grumbleing for a sec.

I chuckled. "Looks like you need a couple of anger management classes."

"You know as well as I do. Hyrule doesn't have classes for anything. And I ain't gonna pay for some overly egotistic horse to carry me over to the next country. You can forget that."

"And yet this Kingdom is so secussful, without anything to teach. It's a surprize if someone were to know basic Math skills..."

"It's the royal family. All the teachers and sages making a fuss ofer the princess and all."

"Ah, yes. The princess Zelda. Quite a beautiful girl. Wouldn't mind meeting her in person. Better than the common girl you find in the market place."

"She'd be right around your age. 15, hm?"

"About. Since my birthdays not for 26 days."

"That would make her… about 12 days older."

I looked at him with a bit of surprize. "You know basic Math?"

"My parents. I'm not orignally from Hyrule you know."

"Oh, that's right."

"But that's how I got here. Tired of it all, you know?"

"Not really. Parents died long ago."

"And that's how you got here?"

"Better than the streets."

"I guess so."

I glanced around for a sec. With the missons cleared out, the pub was nearing being compeltely empty, if not for us.The bartender looked up from cleaning up a few drinking gauntlets, and shouted over.

"Closing time, boys! Better get gone soon."

He looked over back to me. "Come on. I still got to tell you about the misson."

"Right. Who are we guarding?"

"Well, I didn't check myself. Kinda grabed one at random. But it seems like a good one, I'll bet." He laughed to himself over a joke that didn't seem to get spoken to me, as he opened up the parchment that had the mission intel. He then stopped.

"Well?"

"… Looks like you'll get a chance to meet the princess after all."

"How so?" I asked as we left the tavern.

"She's the target."

"Her birthday, hm?"

"An extra measure if protection, if you will."

"Stupid." I summed that up. "Everyone knows the races have been at a complete peace since the Great war 5 years ago."

"Now I'm the one surprized." He spoke. "You were only 10 at the time, right?"

"What of it?"

"Nothing. Just surprizing you'd know about that.

"Either way. When do we start? End?"

"Till the day after her Birthday, starting tomarrow."

"We'll stay at the castle?"

"They've got it all covered."

"Great." I said, half scarcastly. "A life of luxery for 2 weeks."

"I know! Isn't it great?" He said like a little school boy.

"As long as I don't get attached."

"To what? The castle, or the princess?"

Joke. I knew that HAD to be a joke. "This isn't some crazy love story, Alex." I remarked as I turned to the alleyway I called home.

"Just sayin, Zach. Just sayin."

* * *

Yes, Typos and random capitalizations were abound in this chapter. Unfortunatly, for some reason, my Word spell-checker isn't picking up any of them. God do I need XP.

You want MORE of that? Yes? No? Well, it all depends on if you want it. And MY MOTIVATION!

-Zdr


	2. Brawl at the Gates

Everyone should know what the disclamer is. All non-orignal charactors are Nintendos. Now you can't sue me for any reason whatsoever. Enjoy!

* * *

That Time…

Ch. 2- Brawl at the gate

* * *

"So, what was the time you were talking about?"

"_About 5 years ago. When the guild found you. Remember that?_"

"Yeah. Unfortunally…"

"_Unfortunally?_"

"Only time I ever showed fear to them."

"_Is that a bad thing?_"

"Do you think a real mercenary shows fear?"

"_I know humans do._"

"…"

"_Are you saying you're not human?_"

"…Are you saying I'm not?"

"_You look like one._"

"…Maybe looks aren't everything."

"_Maybe so._"

Sunlight in a back alley. The ultmate oxymoron. When you think about it, a place so dank, unclean, and rat-infested shouldn't really see the light of day, you know? Maybe it's just the way it works. I could take it up with the castle though…

Streaching my legs, and climbing out of the box I used for shelter, I dusted off my old, teared up Vest. I kenw it was starting to get a little small for me. Perhaps I should use the money from this mission to buy myself a new one. Yeah. A vest, and maybe some pants too. Nice pair of shoes…

Bah, what am I thinking? I'm always cheated out of it anyway. I'm lucky enough Alex lowns me a few rubies in a while. Shouldn't get greedy. Nope. Not me. Like I said. Too many greedy Mercenaries, not enough earnest heros.

A hero… How cool it would be to be one of thoses. But, it's only a little boys fariy tale. Pure fiction. Not like anyone can meet a princess, be her bodyguard and save her form the…

Oh, right. I AM going to be the princesses bodyguard.

I yawned, which is odd, seeing as I just woke up from a long night's sleep. "Funny how that works." I said to myself, as I walked into the town square. I was to meet Alex by the gates of the castle entrence. Man will that feel odd.

When you look around, you see all the nobles, the countryclub men, the proper gentleman helping the old lady crossing a puddle. Then you see the looks they give you as you pass by. Not to say it annoys me, but I don't like it. Crazy bastards. I'd love to see them live one second in my life. See who gets the odd look there.

But where was I? Oh, yes. The Castle gates.

Sure enough, Alex was right there. Something was different though. His cropped up, black hair was smoothed back making a fine wave of Black. His clothing showed more of a mild-mannered gentleman, rather than a rough edged killer.

Heck, he even shaved.

"For the love of God, Kid!" He yelled as I walked over. "You could at least look nice for the royal family!"

"I don't know if you noticed," I replied. "But usually you're limited to one old article of clothing when you live on the streets."

He sighed. "Least you're not a total wreck. Except for them bones that show up all over. Maybe they can plumb you up some these next few weeks."

It was true. I was likely the skinniest boy alive, without not being sick from it or anything. And he was right. The change of food for a while was something to look forward to.

"Yeah. Well, best turn around. Solders coming."

Two Castle guards, wearing proper guard armor and such arrived at the gates as Alex turned to face them.

"You're our two mercenaries?" One guard, a tall and lanky one asked.

"Better believe it!" Alex replied, pridefully. One of the guards muttered under his breath. I bet it was an insult.

"You'll show us in?" I asked, handing them the parchment that had our mission info, as well as our ticket into the castle.

They looked over it. "Right. Edward!" He called to the watchguard above. "Lower the gates!"

"Right-o!" Another, Edward I guess, shouted, as the gates began to lower. When they finished, I stepped foward a step, only to hear behind me:

"NOW!" Screamed a voice from behind.

Five grown men rushed past all of us. From the looks of them, it seemed they were common theifs.

"Hey, Stop!" Shouted another guard. This one quite fat, with blubber reaching out of his armor.

Alex turned to me. "Shall we give them a demonstration?"

I grinned. "I've been itching for a good scrap."

"Heh, heh. Yeah!"

We dashed forward, and struck. Now we didn't look the type, but both of us are talented Hand-to-hand fighters. Alex was taught before entering Hyrule, and I being self-taught. It didn't take long for us to take out 3 of the 5 of them.

"Hey! Who the hell are these guys?" One of them exclaimed, while running from us.

"Looks like Mercenaries! Maybe if we bait them with some money… Hey! 50 Rupies says you'll let us go!" The other taunted.

This, above all else, pissed me off. REALLY pissed me off.

"Assholes." Alex said, as he gave chase to the thiefs.

But I beat him to them, jumped onto one of them, and pulled him backward to the ground, flipped him over, and threw him into the other one, taking them both out with one blow.

"You're lucky you're still breathing after that." I snarled, dropping a ruby onto their heads. "Mercenaries aren't all about money.

"You're dumb kid…dumb…" One thief gasped out, before passing out.

No one spoke for a sec. The guards stared at me. Alex stared at me. Seems like the world was staring at me.

"Holy Hell, Zach." Alex finally spoke. "You knocked them both out, like… that?"

"Is there something wrong with that? We do it all the time." I replied.

"… Right. Well, let's head for the castle. Guards?"

The tall one scampered up. "Yes, sir. Men, arrest these convicts, and have them ready for a little talk with the king."

Numerous replies of "Sir!" Where heard as we entered the castle. And the thing I saw next took both Alex and my minds off the fight out there.

The castle. Holy heck, the castle.

Beautiful. The best word to describe it. Banners from the cealing showing signs of the royal family embilm, streams of glass-clear water all around, walls of pure while stone. It was an absolute change from the dank alleyways of the town.

The guard lead us up a few flights, and to a crossroad in the halls. "I would like to first introduce you to our ruler, the King. Then to your objective, Princess Zelda."

Alex's heart skipped a beat. "T-The King!"

I looked at him quistionly. "Only right we meet him. Right?"

Alex looked at the guard, nervously. "C-Can I… skip that and meet the princess first?"

The guard thought for a sec. "Yes, it might be better for them to see you indivually first. You, Boy. You can see the king first."

I glared at him. "Don't call me "boy"." I warned.

He got a nervous look on his face. "Y-Yes sir. You'll follow me to the Throne Room. Sir, if you could follow that maid over there, she will lead you to the castle courtyard."

Alex nodded, patted my sholder, told me to keep out of trouble, and followed the madden over the stairs.

"If you'll follow me," The guard beckoned. "I'll lead you to the king."

"Yes." I said, as we took the path to the throne room.

* * *

The plot thickens!

-Zdr


End file.
